


A Better Idea

by RobberBaroness



Category: Dark Shadows (1966)
Genre: F/M, Redeemable Barnabas, Roleplay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-13
Updated: 2013-07-13
Packaged: 2017-12-20 02:45:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/882031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RobberBaroness/pseuds/RobberBaroness
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rather than kidnapping a replacement for Josette, it occurs to Barnabas to simply put out an ad looking for one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Better Idea

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by vintagetvfan on tumblr saying 'I’ve been saying for a while now that almost NONE of his current problems would exist if he hadn’t kidnapped Maggie Evans, but put an ad in the personals instead: “Single White Male seeks old fashioned girl for role-playing, romance…”' I thought it was a good point.

Barnabas Collins had no intention of spending his nights alone in the old house with no one but Willie for company, nor staring at Josette’s portrait with longing and regret without doing something about it. That Maggie Evans girl bore a remarkable resemblance to her, and was only a simple town girl; she would be easy to mold into a replica, with little to make her prefer her old, mundane life. If she already had a beau, that was easily rectified with a simple murder or kidnapping. It would be almost laughably simple.

And yet, there was a stubborn thought in the back of his head that refused to go away. _Ignoring a woman’s wishes, intruding on romances...isn’t that exactly how you ended up in this situation in the first place?_

Perhaps Josette had run away from him screaming, and perhaps it was her desperation to escape him that drove her off the cliff, but what was he supposed to do about it? Forget her? Just ask permission before turning a woman into a vampire and having her life an antiquated lifestyle? What sort of woman would agree to that?

Then again, what he’d tried last time hadn’t worked, either. And if he did succeed in turning Maggie into an exact replica of Josette, it was possible that the new Josette would do the same thing all over again.

Barnabas sighed and reached for the evening paper. He'd heard there were other courtship rituals in these modern times, foolish as they seemed. Well, what harm could come from trying?

\---

“You work too hard,” Carolyn told Vicky one evening over a glass of brandy.

“It’s what your family pays me for, isn’t it?”

“Oh, come on. You’re here as David’s tutor, not as his constant guardian. If he can duck out of his duties so often and go playing in the graveyard, so can you.”

Vicky smiled and blushed a little. Even if it wasn’t what Carolyn meant, playing in the graveyard by herself did seem like fun. She’d always wondered about local history, and headstones offered deeply personal, if heartbreaking, snapshots in time. Not that going wandering about in the dark alone these days was a splendid idea.

“Well, what do you suggest I do?”

Carolyn shrugged.

“Go to the Blue Whale. Meet new people. Stay an extra day next time we go to Boston. Anything to get you out of the house and breathing some fresh air! It won’t hurt you to try something new.”

Perhaps it was because of this conversation that the next evening Vicky’s eye fell on a section of the paper she usually skipped- the personals. Specifically, her eye fell on an ad that read “Single White Male seeks old fashioned girl for role-playing, romance…” It was tempting, and even if a connection wasn’t there, she’d at least have met someone new.

What harm could come from answering?

\---

Via letter, Barnabas and his mystery woman agreed to meet at the Blue Whale. (Where else could they meet, really? Where else was there in this one-family town to go?) He would be wearing a double-breasted suit, and she’d have on a white dress and hair ribbon. Already he was wondering if this would prove to be a horrible mistake, but it was too late to back out now. He might be the sort of man who drank the blood of the living to survive, beat his unwilling servant, and considered kidnapping as a romantic strategy, but he was still a Collins, and a Collins did not stand a lady up.

That was when he looked up from the brandy he wasn’t drinking and saw her. Could that be- well, _that_ was interesting. Barnabas stood, and saw Victoria’s eyes grow wide with embarrassment. Neither one made a move for a moment, and then both burst into laughter.

“Victoria! Well, this is a surprise.”

“I’m so sorry, Barnabas- I didn’t know- I mean, I didn’t-”

“No apologies necessary. Please, sit down.” He pulled out a chair for her, and she joined him after a slight hesitation. “As long as you’re here, let me buy you a drink.”

There was an awkward silence while both parties tried to navigate their situation. Barnabas had never suspected his ad would be answered by someone who lived next door to him, with all that entailed. What if she discovered his secrets? What if he had to silence her? Not only would she be missed by the rest of the family, but he quite liked Victoria. He’d hate to have to do anything unpleasant to her.

But perhaps that was what romance was about.

Finally, Victoria leaned in across the table. Her eyes were shy, but there was a gleam in them he might almost call wicked.

“Just what kind of roleplaying did you have in mind?”

\---

Vicky had no objection to trying on the pretty dresses back at the old house, despite her giggling that no, she really couldn’t, they were much too valuable. Being called Josette was another matter; there was something that felt blasphemous about not only wearing a dead woman’s clothes but taking her name. Barnabas told her it was just a foolish romantic fantasy of his- Josette had an unknown lover who chased her to her death, and he’d always wondered what words of love might be spoken to each other in that far-away era. When he put it like that, it did sound romantic...

“Alright,” said Vicky, “but we’ll stop if it gets too uncomfortable.”

“Of course! I would never dream of doing otherwise.”

What would a refined woman do in this situation, Vicky wondered. Here she was in the loveliest dress she had ever seen, in the same room as a man with ridiculous ideas that were also somehow exciting. What would Josette say to her lover, to her indirect killer?

She joined him by the window, the only light coming from the moon and a nearby candelabra.

“You look beautiful,” Barnabas murmured.

“And you look guilty. Perhaps you have some apologies to make?”

Vicky wasn’t quite sure what possessed her to say such a thing, but, well, it felt like what Josette would say. The look on Barnabas’ face was enigmatic, and she wondered if she’d mortally offended him. But no, he reached out for her hand and kissed it.

“My love. There are a million things I have to apologize to you for. If you had only stayed to listen, if only you hadn’t run away-”

“That doesn’t sound like an apology. That sounds like blaming me for being afraid of you. Aren’t you forgetting who was chasing me, and why I might have rightly been frightened? Or considered that my life with Jeremiah was one I didn’t want ruined?”

This time she’d gone too far, both for Barnabas’s comfort and her own. But it had been hard not to say what came to mind in the moment, dressed in a dead woman’s gown and standing in her house, the past clinging to her every which way. Barnabas looked stricken, and Vicky couldn’t help an awkward laugh.

“I guess I got a little carried away,” she said in her own voice.

“No, Victoria,” Barnabas rushed to add, “it was my fault. I was the one who told you those stories, and you were a good listener.”

“I’ve ruined everything, haven’t I? I guess I’d better go.”

Vicky had taken a few steps before she felt Barnabas’s hand upon her shoulder. When she turned back to look, he was smiling.

“I’ve been a miserable host. I don’t want to chase you away.”

Vicky looked into his eyes, wishing she were better at reading them. But the apology sounded sincere, and they did have most of the night left to them.

“Look, Barnabas, I don’t have to go if you don’t want me to. Maybe we can roleplay again another time, after we’ve talked ahead of time about what we want to happen, and what things will ruin it for us. In the meantime, I wouldn’t say no to another drink, if you want to have me stay at your house for a while...as Victoria?”

\---

It took Barnabas a moment to seriously think about what she was asking him. Of course, Victoria was right- if they were to play at her being Josette, it would be better to decide more firmly on what they desired. And what they expected. The hardest part was knowing what a good job Victoria had done; what else would he have expected Josette to say if she’d come back? Had he really expected forgiveness to come so easily? Had he really thought a modern girl in Josette’s dress would be more docile than the woman herself?

And if Victoria had behaved so, had he really thought she would enjoy it?

She still looked at him, waiting for a response. He had to credit her with being understanding, at the very least, and knowing what she wanted. That was more than he could say for himself. But at least he knew the answer to her question.

“I think I’d enjoy that very much.”


End file.
